Chapter 1: Rain Shadow / Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas
February 20th, 2020
A grey and red jet VTOL skimmed over the sea of clouds that covered California. The rain clouds extended from the red ocean all the way to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The rain was most intense as it came up to the mountains, then the clouds abruptly ended behind them, revealing a sunbaked desert landscape.
For the passenger, seeing it projected on the interior wall made it feel like flying off a cliff. Ignacio Alvarez was used to heights, but this transition was large enough and sudden enough to make him jump in his seat. He leaned back and ran his hands through his slicked-back black hair, letting out a long breath and stretching out in the luxurious leather seat.
"More than halfway there."
He pushed up his mirrored aviators, hiding his steel-grey eyes. His skin had lost much of its usual tan, contrasting with the dark stubble on his ruggedly handsome face. Not surprising - the flight was the first time in six months that he saw sunlight.
Leaning back further, Alvarez put his heavy combat boots up onto the table separating the seats and stretched his legs, smoothing out the dark blue denim of his jeans. Someone would complain, but he wasn't going to be the one hearing it. Covering his black T-shirt with his leather biker jacket, he began to zone out again.
Ten minutes later, the pilot made an announcement.
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you look to your left you will see the remains of the Groom Lake facility."
Alvarez chuckled. He was the only passenger, so the pilot was being a smartass again. Still, it was worth a look to see the disaster he would've been in if he had transferred six months earlier.
He saw the massive crater in the distance - the result of a weapons malfunction that had caused the loss of over four thousand personnel and three Units. The reported cause was an electrical fault in one of the Penning traps. Even momentary loss of power in a pure antimatter weapon was enough to set it off. Having a stockpile there only made things worse as each bomb contributed its payload of antimatter to the devastation.
"Only boron bombs in Vegas, right?" Alvarez asked over the intercom.
"Yeah, this Charlie Foxtrot was the final straw. Even Japan is planning to scrap the last of their N-twos by the end of the year."
Well, that's one less thing to worry about.
Alvarez threw off his jacket and started looking through his shoulder bag. "Did you fly the other guy in too?"
"Nope, he came in from BosWash. Got transferred there right before the boom," the pilot explained.
"And now he's back because this site needs pilots and Units ASAP." Alvarez retrieved a tablet from his bag and turned it on. The familiar secure network authentication screen came up.
"No time to read up on him now. Besides, you gotta turn off all electronic devices before we land. Might as well enjoy the view."
Alvarez flipped off the nearest internal camera, then settled back into his seat.
Despite suffering almost no damage from Second Impact, the Las Vegas area had changed drastically over the last two decades. Casinos and hotels still lined the Strip, but were covered by a slab of metal that was three kilometers wide and stretched from the Welcome sign to Downtown, with the weight supported by tall pillars that doubled as housings for industrial activity. Sleek, futuristic buildings and green spaces covered the platform, creating a second city above the first.
Las Cielos, or "Day City" was largely a tourist paradise like "Night City" below it, but with the prices increased again. It also contained the city's high-end offices and the Vegas Complex University campus.
The architecture became more mundane further out from the city, with the usual mix of apartment buildings, shopping districts, vertical farms and industrial parks. On the edges of the city, almost every building was a bland grey block with four rows of windows. Large red numbers painted on the sides were the only distinguishing feature. In the early post-Impact days, these were tent cities. With the application of 3D printing techniques to construction, mass-produced micro-apartments gave even the poorest residents of American population centers a place to live. Everything that wasn't low-income housing out that far was a solar array, harvesting the abundant energy of the midday sun.
The VTOL slowed down near the layered city, hovering over a ground-level airport. A flying wing aircraft with wingspan of almost half a kilometer had just landed, and was now parked on an equally massive cargo elevator. The VTOL touched down - a fly landing next to the outstretched wings of an albatross. The cargo elevator began to descend, letting out a mechanical groan. On the surface, blast doors slowly closed the rectangular hole in the ground.
After ten minutes of creaking, the elevator stopped with a loud thud. It was now on a rectangular "hill" in the middle of a hangar the size of a small town. The distant walls were made from a dark green metal, while the floor was dark grey. A pair of elevated rails extended from the edge of the cargo elevator to the far end of the hangar, with a huge flatbed rail car mounted on them. The area was abuzz with activity as various smaller transports drove around.
Alvarez stepped out of the VTOL and looked over to the 90-meter-long, aerodynamic container attached to the underside of the massive plane. The number "5-02" was painted in red on the side, along with a stylized fig leaf.
The young man folded up his jacket, carrying it on one shoulder. He grabbed his satchel and put it on the other, then picked up an overstuffed duffel bag. "Looks like I've got everything," he said, taking another glance at the container.
While he watched as the container was lowered onto the transport platform, a grey, electric-powered Jeep Wrangler with the red fig leaf logo on the sides came out from a tunnel under the rails and drove up the gentle incline, parking next to him. Alvarez opened the back door and threw his things in, then got into the front passenger seat.
"Welcome to Vegas, Lieutenant," the driver said, giving the young soldier a glance before hitting the gas. She wasn't much older than him, with warm brown eyes and straight blonde hair cropped at her neck. Like him, she was a first lieutenant, as indicated by the triangular yellow shoulder sleeve patches just below the orange-covered shoulders of her khaki uniform.
"Call me Alvarez. It's a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant..."
"First Lieutenant Claire Lawson. It's good to meet you too," she replied.
"So, what's a lovely officer like you doing in a place like this?" Alvarez jokingly asked.
"I'm in charge of monitoring you guys when you're out there, which means I'm the first officer in line for chauffeur duty when you're on the ground," Lawson replied.
"Must be a real skeleton crew. I was told that this was a provisional facility. Didn't expect it to be this bad."
Lawson giggled. "Just be thankful that a hangar was on the list of things they decided to put in. Otherwise, your Unit would be baking in the sun and you'd be getting briefings in a hotel meeting room."
"At least the view would be nice, and we could order food that doesn't come out of a vending machine."
"Yeah, this is probably the best facility location when you're off the clock. Both topside levels are great, so remember to have fun," Lawson said with a smile.
"Our definitions of fun must be quite different. I always sat out of the card games during my Air Force days," Alvarez recounted.
The Jeep stopped near a wide doorway. "Maybe you'll get along better with people closer to your age. The other pilot is waiting in the ready room, and the OD will come get both of you once he returns to base," Lawson explained.
"That's a big maybe," Alvarez said as he got out and grabbed his bags. "Anyway, thanks for the ride, Lieutenant."
Both the hallway and the ready room had the same futuristic bunker deco - dull metallic walls and floors, with white LED lights shining down from the ceiling. Access to the ready room was via a sliding door, which was set to remain open right now. The ready room itself was actually closer to a lounge, with several couches, office chairs and coffee tables scattered around the room. A currently inactive smartboard was mounted on the far wall and one of the corners was taken up by a kitchenette with a coffee machine.
He heard the footsteps of another entering the room. The young man adjusted the collar of his white dress shirt with pale fingers and stood up. His sleeves were rolled back to his elbows, and he put his hands in the pockets of his black jeans as he turned on the heels of his dress boots.
His jaw-length black hair was tied back, but left loose at the front to frame his sharp facial features. He scanned the new arrival with his amber eyes, the corners wrinkling as he smirked and walked forward.
"Second Lieutenant Valentine," he said, extending a hand.
The short-haired young man put down a bag and gave a firm handshake. "First Lieutenant Ignacio Alvarez."
"Nice to meet you. I guess you'll be leading our element, then," Valentine commented.
The two young men sat down on opposite couches, with the coffee table between them. Alvarez opened his duffel bag and started searching through it.
"So, you only got one name?"
"Named after the Valentine Treaty."
"Let me guess... you were born on the day it was signed."
"Decanted, to be precise."
Alvarez looked up from his bag. "Ah, a tuber."
"Manufactured," Valentine grumbled.
"Wow, I didn't figure you for the easily offended type."
"I'm not." Valentine's smirk returned. "They engineered me to have enhanced emotional control, among other things."
"Lucky bastard." Alvarez was silent for a moment, then snickered. "Or were your genetic donors married?"
Valentine chuckled. "No idea. How about your parents?"
"Yeah, they were married. Came to the States before Second Impact, then died in a car crash two years after it."
"I'm s-"
"No need," Alvarez interrupted. "I'm over it. Besides, it got me selected for the Ryan Program."
"Ah, I met the Navy guy back at Groom Lake. What branch were you with?"
"Air Force, Pararescue Special Tactics. You ever jump out of a plane before?"
"Yeah, it was part of the muscle memory training. Didn't help too much when it came to the hard drop tests, though."
"That's the problem with sim or human training - you pick up bad habits." Alvarez took out a box of ammunition, a blued steel semiautomatic pistol and an empty magazine. "It's good to have the military training, though. Never know when you're going to need it."
"Damn right. Is that a CZ clone?" Valentine asked.
"EAA Witness, ten-mil. Tears right through anything short of a rifle vest," Alvarez explained as he inserted rounds into the magazine.
"Nice. That reminds me..." Valentine reached into his own pile of bags and pulled out a carbon steel Infinity Firearms 1911.
Alvarez looked up from his task to examine the weapon. "Cool gun, but don't tell me you buy into the forty-five stopping power BS."
Valentine took out the loaded magazine and checked the chamber. "Says the guy using the semi-auto equivalent of three-fifty-sevens. Besides, the bigger bullet makes shredder rounds more effective."
"I still use AP rounds. Military habit." Alvarez finished filling the magazine, loaded it into his gun, racked the slide and decocked the hammed.
"Expecting trouble?" Valentine asked as he reloaded his own gun but left the chamber empty.
"Another old habit." Alvarez slid the Witness into a leather holster and clipped it onto his belt. He threw on his biker jacket afterwards, covering the gun.
Valentine buttoned up his cuffs, then put on a shoulder holster, followed by a smart casual black jacket to conceal it. He holstered the Infinity on his left side and stowed two spare magazines in holders on the right.
"Hitman rig. I like your style," Alvarez commented.
"Thanks. Too bad the weather here automatically makes jackets suspicious."
"At least it's not raining all the time like on the coast. I hated having to wear a respirator and goggles just to go outside."
"That's why the upper city is so big on open spaces, as opposed to the arcoplex designs or skyway networks that are found in most cities these days," Valentine explained.
"I heard the dorms filled up as soon as they designated this as the new main facility for the west coast. You think we'll get apartments with a nice view?" Alvarez asked.
"Most of the junior officers get a place in Night City. I'd imagine we'll be with them."
Alvarez shrugged. "Damn. Sunlight was too much to ask for."
They were interrupted by a booming guttural voice coming from the entrance. "The Thundercloud is designed to withstand a megaton-yield nuke going off directly above it, and can act as a scaled-up Whipple shield against orbital kinetic weapons. Do you really want to give up that protection just because it blocks out the sun?"
"Then we'll fight in the shade," Alvarez retorted.
The vaguely metallic thuds of heavy combat boots against the floor made their way over to the pair of young men. They looked up at the six-foot-six, trench coat-clad officer standing with his arms folded behind his back. His pale, chiselled face was clean-shaven and his short brown hair was parted. Mirrored wraparound sunglasses covered his eyes, adding to his seemingly emotionless look.
"I'm Captain Roland Metzger, the Director of Operations for the Vegas facility. Follow me to your apartments," he said.
The Dawn Hotel was a shining neomodernist building on the Strip that extended through the Thundercloud, providing accommodation both above and below the steel slab. Since it was not one of the load-bearing buildings, the interior was allowed to be hollow. This space was taken up by a luxurious atrium separated by sky lobbies every thirty floors.
The express elevator stopped on floor 60, allowing the captain and the two new arrivals to transfer to a local elevator.
"We reserved elevator seven and express elevator five for your use. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to modify the building with an emergency express elevator to your floor," Metzger explained as they ascended.
"What do we do if there's a power failure?" Valentine asked.
"The elevators have a backup power supply. The shaft assembly is also fireproof."
"Considering what we're up against, those won't be the worst situations. They could get blocked by debris or completely destroyed," Alvarez pointed out.
"There's BASE jump equipment in your rooms," the captain said, completely deadpan.
Alvarez sighed. "I'm suddenly a lot more grateful for all that HALO training."
The doors opened on floor 88, the second-last one before the building's internal armored layer that extended the Thundercloud's protection to the interior.
"Why didn't we just get rooms at the elevator hub on sixty?" Alvarez asked as they exited and started looking through the numbered doors.
"Traffic is too high and too difficult to restrict," Valentine answered, getting a nod from Metzger. "There are thirty floors of keycards that can be stolen or cloned in order to access it, and a lot of people walking around to blend in with."
"Also, there are only two free rooms, and there's a bar next to them," Metzger added. "Speaking of which, here are your cards."
The young men took their keycards. Alvarez was assigned to room 88-05, while Valentine was in room 88-04.
Alvarez looked over the railing opposite his room entrance. Beyond it was a large hanging display that was currently showing an ad for cigars. The sky lobby was twenty-eight floors below. "Can we get rappelling equipment too? It would be helpful if there's a problem with only the local elevator."
The captain looked over the railing too as he considered the idea. "I'll see what I can do. Might even be able to get some good attachment points installed outside your doors."
"Hey, Alvarez! You ready to check out the interiors?" Valentine called out as he swiped his keycard.
The two apartments were almost identical, with onyx-tiled floors and white walls. They were pre-furnished with furniture largely consisting of glass and metal, while the couches and chairs were covered with grey synthetic suede.
"Wow, the lights have adjustable brightness and color!" Alvarez exclaimed as he cycled through the mood lighting options.
"King-size bed! It's so comfy!" Valentine shouted from his bedroom.
"A two-by-three meter shower? For one person?" Alvarez pondered as he looked around his bathroom.
"Internet refrigerator, internet coffee machine... internet toaster?" Valentine examined the appliance. "It makes pictures on the toast? Who needs that?"
Captain Metzger stood outside, listening to the childlike wonder of two young men experiencing luxury apartments for the first time. He put his hand up to his ear. "I'm at the hotel with the transfers. What is it?"
With the awe of being in his new place subsiding, Alvarez got down to more serious matters. He knocked on the walls, noting the deeper sound of the ones separating the apartments - structural reinforcement that would likely be sufficient to stop even high-velocity pistol rounds. The interior walls were thinner, and would act as concealment instead of proper cover in a firefight. Making a finger gun, he started testing out various angles, determining the best choke points and ambush spots.
Meanwhile, Valentine was rotating the desk in his bedroom, making it face the entrance to the room and side-on to the window. This provided privacy from both viewing angles. He looked through the empty drawers in the desk, then did the same for the ones in his wardrobe. After thinking for a moment, he looked up at the HVAC vents on the ceiling and went to get a chair.
After listening intently for several minutes, Metzger spoke again. "Understood. Bring us up to ARCON two and prepare to issue evac orders to settlements in the projected engagement area."
The mood lighting in the apartments suddenly turned red and an announcement came from every sound system connected to the network. "Attention pilots: report to the ready room immediately. This is not a drill. Repeat: report to the ready room immediately. This is not a drill."
The two pilots ran out of their apartments, reactivating the security systems on their way out. The captain hurried back to the elevator, with the lieutenants catching up a moment later.
"Your suits are in the locker room next to the ready room. Contact me once you've loaded up," Metzger explained as they descended.
The express elevator stopped and the captain got out at the command deck of the underground facility, then it continued to the hangar.
"It's good to finally be back in the game," Alvarez said as he flexed his shoulders, wincing slightly at certain angles.
Valentine leaned back against the elevator wall. "I'm almost excited to have something to shoot at other than training drones."
Alvarez smirked. "Just don't come crying to me when you get hit with feedback for the first time."
"Huh." Valentine looked over to his team mate with a similarly smug expression. "If you end up getting wrecked again, I'd suggest Honolulu-two for your next vacation."
The pilots' ribbing continued as they exited the elevator at the hangar level.